#bob downes

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BOB DOWNES OPEN MUSIC - Basking In The Sun

Alb. "Crossing Borders" (1978/79)

Personnel:

Bob Downes - flute Brian Godding - electric guitar Paul Rutherford - trombone Paul Bridge - bass Denis Smith - drums

[merzbow-derek]

POST-SCRIPTUM 928

JEAN COHEN-SOLAL, Flûtes libres (1972)

Dans une Bretagne de fiction onirique battue par les vents, pirates hippies et filles du feu plus ou moins inspirées par Gérard de Nerval s'affrontent dans un théâtre à la magie digne d'un Cocteau, où l'improvisation musicale occupe une place de choix : c'est Noroît, film maudit non sorti en salles à l'époque (1976), réalisé par l'immense Jacques Rivette, où l'on peut voir et écouter jouer Jean-Cohen-Solal, son frère Robert et Daniel Ponsard, dans une scène rivalisant d'inventivité avec celle de l'Art Ensemble Of Chicago dans Les Stances à Sophie !

C'est cette magie et cette inventivité que l'on retrouve sur le premier album de Jean Cohen-Solal : Flûtes libres. Magie singulièrement opérante sur "Quelqu'un", long mantra contemplatif occupant toute la face B tout en anticipant sur la collaboration à l'univers mystérieux de Jacques Rivette.

La flûte, Jean Cohen-Solal l'a étudiée dans les grandes largeurs, ce qui en fait l'un des grands virtuoses français, avec Michel Edlin qui sévit alors au sein de Triode. À l'époque (1972), les flûtistes ont la cote auprès du public, la plupart se montrant influencés par Roland Kirk, tel Ian Anderson de Jethro Tull. Sauf que Jean Cohen-Solal raconte une autre histoire, plus riche et centrée sur l'instrument lui-même, par la magie (encore elle) des overdubs.

L'on pourrait citer Paul Horn plutôt qu'un Roland Kirk, mais alors dégrossi d'une éducation classique trop audible et du côté easy listening. En matière de comparaison toutefois, l'"open music" de Bob Downes conviendrait mieux aux expérimentations électroacoustiques de Jean Cohen-Solal, qui a d'ailleurs fréquenté le GRM et Bernard Parmegiani à qui il lui est arrivé de fournir de la matière sonore. Ces qualités expliquent probablement que Flûtes libres figure (à juste titre) sur la fameuse liste de Nurse With Wound.

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In a dreamlike fictive and windswept Brittany, hippy pirates and wild women more or less inspired by Gérard de Nerval fight it out in a theatre, the magic of which brings to mind Cocteau, and where musical improvisation has an important role: this is Noroît, a cursed film which was never released in cinemas at the time (1976), directed by the great Jacques Rivette, where Jean-Cohen-Solal, his brother Robert and Daniel Ponsard can be seen and heard playing. The scene is every bit as inventive as that featuring the Art Ensemble Of Chicago in Les Stances à Sophie!

The same magic and invention can be found on this first album by Jean Cohen-Solal: Flûtes libres. A magic which can be keenly felt on "Quelqu'un", a long contemplative mantra which takes up the whole of the B side and which anticipates the future collaboration in the mysterious universe of Jacques Rivette.

Jean Cohen-Solal studied flute from all angles, and became one of the great French virtuosi, along with Michel Edelin who at the time was with Triode. This was a period (1972) when flutists were very popular with the public, most of whom had been influenced by Roland Kirk, including Ian Anderson in Jethro Tull. Whereas Jean Cohen-Solal tells a different story, richer and centred on the instrument itself, using the magic (yes, that again) of overdubs.

Perhaps Paul Horn rather than Roland Kirk could be an influence, but stripped of a classical background which was too audible and a tendency for easy listening. In fact, in terms of comparison, "open music" by Bob Downes would be the closest to the electroacoustic experiments of Jean Cohen-Solal, who, by the way, was also close to the GRM and Bernard Parmegiani for whom he occasionally provided sound sources. These are the qualities which probably explain why Flûtes libres figures (and justifiably) on the famous Nurse With Wound list.

[merzbow-derek]

POST-SCRIPTUM 929

JEAN COHEN-SOLAL, Captain Tarthopom (1973)

"Rien ne peut arrêter un flûtiste. On peut faire ce qu'on veut, ce que l'on ressent. Ma flûte, c'est l'image de moi-même. Je peux même plus facilement exprimer mes sentiments au travers de ma flûte qu'avec le langage." Ainsi parle Jean Cohen-Solal sur la pochette de son premier album, Flûtes libres, connu pour ses superpositions aventureuses de flûtes traversières et ocarina, alto, piccolo et basse, en ut ou en sol.

Relayé par la fameuse liste de Nurse With Wound, le parcours de Jean Cohen-Solal cumule les expériences passionnantes dans les années 1970, que ce soit sa participation à la série animée culte Les Shadoks à laquelle il prête sa voix en plus de l'acteur Claude Piéplu, sa proximité avec le GRM où il côtoie Bernard Parmegiani, François Bayle, Luc Ferrari, Guy Reibel et Béatrice Ferreyra, ou son engagement dans les musiques progressives avec Captain Tarthopom (1973), disque dans le style de ce qui se pratique alors en Europe sous la bannière du label Vertigo, mais en version instrumentale, en plus audacieux aussi, cela sans rechigner aux influences classiques comme du monde entier.

Impossible à étiqueter, Jean Cohen-Solal y tient encore la dragée haute aux homologues anglo-saxons Bob Downes, Harold McNair, Jon Field (Jade Warrior) et Jeremy Steig pour n'évoquer que les plus créatifs d'entre eux. Ses affinités électives avec les cordes, déjà à l'oeuvre en compagnie de l'auteur de l'inénarrable Free Sitar Serge Franklin sur Flûtes libres, rencontrent là un écho idéal en Jean-Claude Deblais, guitariste lui-même auteur d'un des mythiques et très méconnus sommets de l'underground français et de l'illustration sonore : Le Miroir du fantastique.

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"Nothing can stop a flutist. We can do whatever we want, whatever we feel. My flute, is a mirror of myself. I express feelings more easily with the flute than with language." This is what Jean Cohen-Solal said on the cover of his first album, Flûtes libres, renowned for its adventurous overdubbing of alto, piccolo and bass flutes, in treble or in C and ocarina.

Mentioned on the famous Nurse With Wound list, the path followed by Jean Cohen-Solal included many exciting adventures in the 1970s, from his participation in the cult animation series Les Shadoks where his voice can be heard alongside the actor Claude Piéplu, to his proximity to the GRM where he worked alongside Bernard Parmegiani, François Bayle, Luc Ferrari, Guy Reibel and Béatrice Ferreyra, or his involvement in progressive music with Captain Tarthopom (1973), an album very much in the same style as that featured in Europe on the Vertigo label, but in an instrumental form, and even more audacious, without turning its back on the same classical influences as everyone else.

It is impossible to pin a label on Jean Cohen-Solal, he is the equal of his anglo-saxon counterparts Bob Downes, Harold McNair, Jon Field (Jade Warrior) and Jeremy Steig, just to mention the most creative of the bunch. His affinity with strings, already heard in his work with Serge Franklin, (author of the the ineffable Free Sitar) on Flûtes libres, is perfectly echoed here by the work of Jean-Claude Deblais, himself author of one of the little-known summits of sound illustration and French underground music: Le Miroir du fantastique.

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Bob DOWNES OPEN MUSIC

"Episodes at 4 am"

(LP. Openian. 1974) [GB]

[plus-low-overthrow]

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Bob Downes - Don't Let Tomorrow Get You Down (Music For Pleasure)

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Bob DOWNES OPEN MUSIC

“Hells Angels”

(LP. Openian. 1975) [GB]

[johnkatsmc5]

Bob Downes  "Deep Down Heavy" 1970 UK Prog Jazz Rock  (feat Chris Spedding)

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ESOTERIC RECORDINGS are proud to announce the first official release of the classic 1970 album by BOB DOWNES Deep Down Heavy . Celebrated Jazz saxophonist and flautist BOB DOWNES album first appeared on EMI s budget MFP label, arguably the only Progressive Jazz album ever issued by the label. The work was a collaboration with lyricist Robert Cockburn and was an outstanding eccentric example of Jazz Rock with Progressive and even Psychedelic influences. The music and songs featured contributions from the leading lights of British Jazz Rock such as CHRIS SPEDDING, RAY RUSSELL and ALAN RUSHTON, interspersed with poetry by Robert Cockburn (recorded on location on London buses and Underground trains). The jazz groove of the music was present on tracks such as Walking On , Don t Let Tomorrow Get You Down and Poplar Cheam , leading the album to be sampled three decades later by DJs and Mixers. Remastered from the original master tapes, this Esoteric Recordings reissue is long overdue. The time is right to rediscover the open music of Deep Down Heavy , one of THE lost treasures of the Progressive and Psychedelic era....~ A rough 'n' ready excursion into the murkier realms of British psychedelia, this underrated little gem seems to get a rough deal these days, mainly thanks to it's rushed, low-budget production and the gritty, almost Altman-esq sound quality(just check out the reviews on this very site!). Issued in 1970 on the EMI-backed Music For Pleasure imprint, 'Deep Down Heavy' was one of three albums issued during 1970 by jazz-flautist Bob Downes, the others being 'Open Music' and the high-brow sounding 'Bob Downes New Sounds For Flute, Percussion & Synthesizers'. Of the three, this curious psych-jazz relic is perhaps the strongest, with Downes showing off his impressive flute and saxophone skills over a series of deeply-psychedelic, blues-tinged jams. Also involved is poet buddy Robert Cockburn, who adds some very gritty vocals, and rising young guitarist Chris Spedding, who seemed to be everywhere during this time, fresh from stints with both Nucleus and Pete Brown's Battered Ornaments to name but a couple. To put it bluntly, 'Deep Down Heavy' is a product of it's time, very much a lost relic from a bygone age. But that's exactly what makes it so fascinating. From the rough opening blasts of the hard-rockin' 'Too Late', to the hazy bad-trip psychedelia of the hypnotic closer 'Circus Rising', this is an album that cooks with a raw, fuzzy, late night power perfectly summed up by the album's title. It's an ambience that is maintained throughout, with surreal background noises and strange instrumental interludes adding to the already highly mystical feel, but this is very much Downes baby and it is he who dominates, pulling off some scintiallating solo's on both flute and saxophone. The mixture of deeply-trippy cosmic jamming, edgy blues riffs and druggy jazz breaks exists to serve his improvised displays, and to a lesser extent vice-versa, the lo-fi sound quality only heightening the whole late-sixties vibe. This is certainly for those with a penchant for obscure psych relics, and this writer is confident that if you take a chance on 'Deep Down Heavy' you won't be disappointed. A real curio from the heart of the sixties, it doesn't really get any more underground than this. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2014... by stefro .....~

WOW MAN. Now, as of this review I'm only familiar with Electric City, which bored me to tears. This though… this is something else. Reminds me a lot of Hampton Grease Band's Music To Eat, albeit significantly more bite sized (pun) and as such, more accessible. But this is weird. Totally warped rock, not too far from Beefheart but a bit more together, mixed with all manner of free jazz ingredients. Circus Rising has some absolutely hilarious fake audience bits that make them sound like they're the Beatles in 1963. Totally worth looking for. Some of the tracks are a little tedious, but none of them are overlong, and quite a few of them kick serious ass....by...thrasher2809 ...~ Notable for his work with artists as diverse as the John Barry Seven and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, avant garde flute/sax virtuoso Downes created a unique psychedelic document here. Available on CD for the first time, Deep Down Heavy was originally released on the budget label Music For Pleasure in 1970. It was partly the product of Downes tripping through London, playing his bamboo flute in different parts of town, with producer John Boyden dutifully trailing behind with his Nagra. Nothing’s off the creative table: The Wrong Bus is a field recording of the pair getting on, you guessed it, the wrong bus; on the bone-dry Poplar Cheam, Downes sings about various stops on the London transport system. But all the whimsy here isn’t wearing: there’s good psych rock on here too (the amped-up Beefheartian opener Too Late, featuring Chris Spedding on guitar), and soulful, raw blues rock (Don’t Let Tomorrow Get You Down). Downes is a wailing banshee on Got No Home, but hits a sweet spot between Scott Walker and Jim Morrison on We All Enter In. It’s all raggedly compelling, and represents yet another solid entry in Esoteric’s ever more meaningful catalogue....by GRM...~ Once one of England's top avant-garde jazz flautists, Bob Downes (born Robert George Downes) has maintained a low profile since relocating to Europe in the late 1980s. Although he released a series of impressive albums in the mid-'70s, he has recorded very little since. Able to play more than 25 instruments, Downes has focused primarily on flute, piano, and percussion. His albums featured a wide array of supportive players. His first three albums -- Open Music, Electric City, and Deep Down Heavy-- featured the accompaniment of rock guitarist, Chris Spedding, while his subsequent efforts --Diversions in 1973, Episode at 4 A.M. in 1974, and Hells Angels in 1975 -- were marked by the synthesizer playing of Laurie Baker. Downes composed several pieces for Ballet Rambert (now: Rambert Dance Company), the oldest dance company in England. AMG....~

When AAJ sent me this CD, I did not want to believe that it would be possible to reprint one of the most particular, curious and in some ways absurd CDs published in the now distant 1970. It was a very special year for European music, which from the first few months, he proved to seriously believe in a sort of "change of the decade." The Beatles were about to officially announce their dissolution to the press. Ian Carr's Nucleus asked the particularly creative Vertigo (a label that was basically publishing "everything that looked off the rails," no matter this was the first stirrings of hard rock, psychedelic, avant-garde, jazz or alternative rock) wait until the first days of January to print their historic Elastic Rock . It was the beginning of a new musical era and, in fact, more or less from those dates, even the most attentive encyclopedias are aware of the groove to be traced, dividing a hypothetical "Sixty world" from the next deluge. It is not by chance that the two-year period 1969-1971 was perhaps the most creative of that particular historical climate of modern music. On the other side of the ocean Miles Davis was struggling with the serious and much-discussed "electrical breakthrough" but, apart from a few things, the navel of the world seemed to be that of the magmatic upheaval born around the ashes of swinging London. In those thirty-six months the British musical world seemed to be a giant volcano able to erupt intense rivers of creativity, proposing-practically every week-an incision of real "art music." Everything seemed allowed. Also the absurdity (probably without equal and from Guinness of the Primates) that in the space of only twelve months, a musician published three substantially similar works for three different musical labels. For this reason, perhaps much more than his Open Music Trio active since 1968 and his very important collaborations with a name-monstre like that of Mike Westbrook , the name of Bob Downes has entered into history. Flautist, saxophonist, singer, pianist, but perhaps better as a pluri-instrumentalist (it seems to play without difficulty more than twenty-five instruments and - at that time - it was rare), the musician of Plymouth (today at the threshold of eighty) was a sort of 'hyperactive and unleashed driver of musicians and crowds and extreme propagator of destabilizing sound situations. Towards the end of a decade of maximum creativity, he moved to live in Germany and perhaps for this reason, many have lost track of it since then. Yet, even from the Eighties onwards, Downes has not stopped conducting an underground musical life, continuing to experiment with sounds and new timbric rules, working on metrics and harmonic contents, introducing electronic ideas that no one else had yet attempted. Deep Down Heavyis the reprint (edited by Esoteric Recordings, gill of the celebrated Cherry Red Records London) of his second album, originally released on vinyl in the early 1970s for the Music for Pleasure, a true gem in the history of sub-labels of the time distributed by British EMI. Always recognized as one of the most important names of the English "avantgarde" scene of those years, Downes was fortunate to be accompanied in many of his record adventures by important names of the time, then become authentic lighthouses of the new music scene in the land of Albion. People like Ray Russell , Alan Rushton or Chris Spedding and Harry Miller, both for example present in this engraving together with the beloved friend-poet Robert Cockburn who, in this work, recites short poems at the beginning of some passages. What's on this record? What is breathed is the underground perfume and the total psychedelia parallel to many genres of the time: the one that unites with an invisible thread Pink Floyd and Soft Machine, the new wave of English jazz and the first electronic experiments of alternative goddesses. The first wanderings of a peculiar progressive music still in bands. In short, a kind of pleasure for the ears of the researcher and music archaeologist in you. Crazed flakes of flute never heard before and which then made the glory of Ian Anderson and companions. Energetic rock thoughts that looked even further and peeked at jazz to try things that until then seemed unthinkable. Cross-cultures mediated by psychedelia and who knows what else because in those days there was really around everything ... the original technical quality of the recording work is small and that is perhaps why it is so much expected to give life back to the dusty furrows from the time. But today it is more than correct to shed light on that incoherent magma of sound that - along with many other rivulets - has then generated the great river of music to be fed only a few years later to an industry that has not been able to safeguard the cultural sense of those movements. By engulfing everything and flattening music as a simple commercial need. In spite of all this the groove of this work is seriously all-encompassing: here in it there is really everything and more; you can find the first funky wanderings, alternative heavy metal, alternative romantic rock, alternative rock 'n' roll, alternative jazz ... a total and anomalous melting pot where it is perhaps not the case to search for style or form. The important thing then was the conclusion of the present and believe in a sort of "controlled chaos," capable of germinating a new musical era. Long life Bob. Thank you......By VIC ALBANI ....~

Among the unlikeliest anomalies to have seeped from the fringes of Britain’s avant-garde jazz-rock scene, 1970’s Deep Down Heavy was originally issued, unthinkably, on the Music For Pleasure label. MFP relied upon cut-price, cutthroat reissues and moribund MOR for its desultory bread and butter, yet here it was, surreal offering an outlet for flutist/ saxophonist Bob Downes and an unruly ensemble of like-minded noisemakers (not least guitarist Chris Spedding). The album “budget”, such as it was, probably struggled to limp into a single figure, but this turned out to be a long-term gain. Mostly recorded in London’s Conway Hall – very quickly indeed – it bristles with brassy, scratchy, first-take belligerence (Thebes Blues, Walking On, Too Late). Downes had the musicians face each other in a circle, focusing their energies inwards; engineers John Boyden and Anton Kwiatkowsky, habituated to classical recordings, deployed an insufficient number of microphones, resulting in a monumentally exciting sonic fracas. The drums in particular benefit hugely from the hall’s natural reverb, cannonading off the back wall, while the overall mystery murk compares very favourably with The Plastic People Of The Universe and Brainticket. The band performances are interspersed with audio-vérité “field recordings” of the cheerfully peculiar Downes playing his bamboo flute on both the London Underground and a double-decker. A rough 'n' ready excursion into the murkier realms of British psychedelia, this underrated little gem seems to get a rough deal these days, mainly thanks to it's rushed, low-budget production and the gritty, almost Altman-esq sound quality. Issued in 1970 on the EMI-backed Music For Pleasure imprint, 'Deep Down Heavy' was one of three albums issued during 1970 by jazz-flautist Bob Downes, the others being 'Open Music' and the high-brow sounding 'Bob Downes New Sounds For Flute, Percussion & Synthesizers'. Of the three, this curious psych-jazz relic is perhaps the strongest, with Downes showing off his impressive flute and saxophone skills over a series of deeply-psychedelic, blues-tinged jams. Also involved is poet buddy Robert Cockburn, who adds some very gritty vocals, and rising young guitarist Chris Spedding, who seemed to be everywhere during this time, fresh from stints with both Nucleus and Pete Brown's Battered Ornaments to name but a couple. To put it bluntly, 'Deep Down Heavy' is a product of it's time, very much a lost relic from a bygone age. But that's exactly what makes it so fascinating. From the rough opening blasts of the hard-rockin' 'Too Late', to the hazy bad-trip psychedelia of the hypnotic closer 'Circus Rising', this is an album that cooks with a raw, fuzzy, late night power perfectly summed up by the album's title. It's an ambiance that is maintained throughout, with surreal background noises and strange instrumental interludes adding to the already highly mystical feel, but this is very much Downes baby and it is he who dominates, pulling off some scintillating solo's on both flute and saxophone. The mixture of deeply-trippy cosmic jamming, edgy blues riffs and druggy jazz breaks exists to serve his improvised displays, and to a lesser extent vice-versa, the lo-fi sound quality only heightening the whole late-sixties vibe. This is certainly for those with a penchant for obscure psych relics, and this writer is confident that if you take a chance on 'Deep Down Heavy' you won't be disappointed. A real curio from the heart of the sixties, it doesn't really get any more underground than this....~ Credits Drums – Allan Rushton*, Derek Hogg, Laurie Allan Electric Bass [Bass Guitar] – Harry Millar* Guitar – Chris Spedding, Peter Billam, Ray Russell Vocals [Poetry Reading], Lyrics By – Robert Cockburn* Vocals, Saxophone, Flute, Music By – Bob Downes Tracklist A1 Too Late A2 Day Dream A3 Walking On A4 The Wrong 'Bus A5 Popular Cheam B1 Don't Let Tomorrow Let You Down B2 Jasmine B3 Got No Home B4 We All Enter In B5 Thebes Blues B6 Hollow Moment B7 Circus Rising